When creating a web site, it’s a must to test it in multiple browsers as well as multiple version of those to make sure the visitors see what you want them to see. Google Analytics is the best free website analyzer to install on your website and track which browser your visitor are using. Even though I am not an Internet Explorer user, Internet Explorer is still the popular one, following closely by Firefox. So I have to test it! To do so, you can install a multiple versions of IE on your PC. The easiest way is to install Yousif’s Multi IEs installer which contains IE3 IE4.01 IE5 IE5.5 and IE6.

Now anyone can have a website and they don’t need to know anything about HTML. That’s why we we see more and more blog, social profile, … and what came right after them : widgets. Widgets are third party items that can be embedded in your web page. There is also Desktop widgets and Mobile widgets, but we’ll only talk about Web widgets.

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One of my happy finds this past weeks are colors websites. You can make good design or drawing, but if the color doesn’t match, you won’t have a great result. Plus it’s always good to see what’s the color trend.

Kuler by Adobe is a website where you can get inspiration for colors themes. Not only you can get inspiration and share your color with others, you can create/edit them with a tool and download the swatch to use it directly in your CS2+ application! I’m not sure if there is a way to use it in an older version of an adobe application, but you can always copy the RGB or hexa values and save in your Swatches palette.

Kuler works in a 5 color schemes with a base color and four related color. When you change your base color by moving the color marker (little circle), Kuler with calculated the related color for you by following 6 different rules: analogous, monochromatic, triad, complementary, compound and shades. There is also a custom options where the colors markers don’t change by themselves. This impressive system can also be found in Illustrator CS3. I’d like to see if we’ll be able to link lot of theme, to make a bigger theme. Maybe we can already and I didn’t know. Hehe. Anyways, I suggest you to see Kuler Flash tutorial for more info on how to use the website and their many features.

For developer, it is possible to develop an application/website colored by kuler, using the kuler APIs. There is also a cross-platform kuler desktop which required to have Adobe AIR installed.

Another great website in the same kind is COLOURlovers which have color themes, but also patterns. They also have an interesting tool to create the colors and patterns. You can download the color, color themes and patterns in various formats: ase, ai, psd, cs, html, zip. They also have nice sections for website and magazine trends, articles, interviews… everything to keep you up to date! COLOURlovers website seems to have a bigger community and interaction compared to Kuler, it’s not surprising since they were online 2 years before Kuler!

Both website are essential for any amateur or professional designer!